Sunday, 30 June 2013

It was Birding Watching Monday and a small number of my
class decided to go by bus to Portaferry, then take the ferry to Strangford and
walked through a lovely small wood.Apart
from seeing Gulls and a few Oystercatcher from the bus, Common Tern and
Cormorant from the ferry, then the usual woodland birds like Blue, Coal and Great
Tit with the odd Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Robin, Dunnock, Blackbird and Wood Pigeon, there
was not much else showing.Nevertheless,
we did find things of interest which I am going to share with you.

Hogweed - Heracleum sphondylium

There was still some Queen Anne’s lace although most had
past their best however the Hogweed was coming into bloom.

Hogweed flowers from June to September. The flowers are
self-compatible and usually insect-pollinated. There are several hundred seeds
in each flower umbel. The average seed number per plant in ruderal habitats is
5,030. Seed is shed slowly from August until winter.

Ripe seeds contain a rudimentary embryo that requires 2-3
months at low temperatures to after-ripen. Seed has given 3% germination after
14 days at 5°C and 69% after 96 days. Seeds do not after-ripen fully at higher
temperatures and there was no germination of seed kept at room temperature.
Seeds buried in soil develop a light requirement for germination.

Bud of Hogweed

Roger Phillips in his book 'Wild Food' says "This is unequivocally one of the best vegetables I have ever eaten.

Hogweed is a member of the celery family (umbelliferae) and
is actually nicer as a vegetable than braised celery. However - the taste is
not at all like celery. Hogweed tastes like - hogweed. I know of nothing else
similar. Hogweed has a distinctive and pleasant smell when the leaves are
bruised.The young leaves, slightly
furled and young stems are best when cooked as a vegetable".

Plantain - Plantago lanceolata

Apart from the Plantain above, there were a lot of different types of grasses which none of
us knew the names of, however there was one with a reddish/pink colour and was
shedding is seed all around the place that I videoed and you will see at the end of this post.

During our walk through the wood we found 2 wood
carvings.Below is an Owl and the
bottom was part of a tree with chiseled out words.

Owl

"Big bright yellow eyes like moons,

searching into dark
forests for careless creatures".

Fox

"Big red fox sleeking along the hedge,

white tipped twitching
tail, alert and listening".

When we finished our walk we had lunch in the Cuan Hotel and were greeted outside with this lovely cart smothered in small colourful Pansies

Lunch was delicious and this photo below was shot for me by the owner’s wife of some of my group.

On our way to the ferry we passed a lovely garden and I spied
a tree that I knew was unusual.I found
out later that it was Sambucus Nigra ‘Black Lace’ and in the Elderflower
family.

We also saw this shrub called Olearia macrodonta.

Every time you cross the ’Narrows’ between Portaferry and Strangford, you see the Tidal Turbine
and I thought you might like to know about that.

It is world's first commercial-scale tidal turbine was commissioned in Northern Ireland's Strangford
Lough in July 2008. The 1.2MW SeaGen project was developed by Marine Current
Turbines (MCT).

The project, SeaGen was installed in Strangford Lough in
May 2008. It was towed to the mouth of the Lough by a barge.The turbine as a whole weighs 1,000t, and is
43m wide from tip to tip. Designed by engineer Peter Fraenkel, the rotors drive
a generator that sends energy along a cable that then links into the national
grid across the Lough in Strangford village

"SeaGen works much like an 'underwater windmill' with
the rotors being driven by the power of the tidal currents rather than the
wind."Strangford Lough has a highly
energetic tide race and so is recognised as one of the main tidal 'hotspots' in
UK and Irish waters.

Built at Belfast's Harland and Wolff's shipyards, the
birthplace of the Titanic, SeaGen took around 14 days to install, with the
system literally being bolted onto the Lough's bed.SeaGen briefly delivered 150KW of electricity
into the grid while it was being commissioned in July 2008.

SeaGen has a mobile cross arm on a single supporting pile 3m
in diameter and 9m above the average sea level. The twin rotors begin to
generate electricity once the tide runs faster than 1m/s. At maximum speed, the
tips move at around 12m/s, which is around 1/3 of the average wind turbine
speed. The two rotating blades turn at 14rpm and drive a gear box system. comprising
of two 600KW turbines, required a total investment of £12m.

The project reached an important milestone in September 2012
by producing up to 5GWh of power since its commissioning. This is equal to the
power required by 1,500 households annually. The milestone indicates the
completion of the demonstration phase of the project.

Saturday, 29 June 2013

Yesterday I finished my post when I returned from my walk from the East Lighthouse at 8.30pm
and was just in time for breakfast. Although
we had all brought our own breakfast because we were staying at the Hostel, Ronnie had brought bacon and rolls for everyone and so
it was very welcome as I was starving after my early three and a half hour walk! The photo below is the last photo I am showing you of the Harbour and village on Rathlin Island.

After breakfast we decided to walk to the South Lighthouse, locally known as Rue. As I had the group with me I had less opportunity to take photos as I was making sure everyone was able to see the birds through the telescope and doing some teaching when appropriate.

Reed Bunting

Stonechat

As we walked and stopped often to look at the birds, we saw this man with a bicycle and realised it was 'Rush Hour'!!!

These sheep had huge horns and we all thought there would be more sheep on the island.

Below is the Bay just before we reached the South Lighthouse. We stopped here and watched the Seals and Eider ducks in the water. There was an old building where we found Common Gulls nesting and Rock Pipits very busy bringing food to their chicks.

Common Gull

Eider with ducklings

Rock Pipit

The South Lighthouse below (known locally as the Rue Light) is the smallest of Rathin Island's three
lighthouses and stands just 35 feet tall. It has operated since 1922 and was
designed as an unmanned lighthouse. It flashes twice in quick succession followed
by a short gap.

We headed back again and stopped again in Church Bay. This photo, entitled, 'Solitude' below was one I took last year and is a member of my bird class and unable to come with us this year.

Our time was coming to an end however we were looking forward to Emma's award winning fish and chips. They were the 'real deal', so fresh I think she must have fished for them that morning!

Below is how the outside of her cafe was decorated.

During our time on Rathlin Island, we had seen 55 different species of birds and I was telling the group that normally I see a couple of Ringed Plover and just when we thought we would never seen one here, I spied one among the seaweed. Can you see it?

There is a wonderful Visitor Centre and this plague below is on a wall. So out of interest I looked on the Internet to learn about the history surrounding Robert the Bruce and I thought I would share that with you. It is thestory of an Rathlin Island, a King in exile, a determined
spider... and the greatest military triumph in Scotland’s history. (read more below if interested)

Exactly 700 years ago, King Robert the Bruce was on Rathlin
Island, planning his return to Scotland. Under the East Lighthouse at Altacarry lies the most famous
cave on Rathlin, Bruce's Cave. Legend
tells how Robert the Bruce fled from Scotland in 1306 to regain his strength in
this great cave. The story also tells
how he was inspired to return to the battle in Scotland, and victory at
Bannockburn, after watching a spider steadfastly spinning a web inside the
cave.

You may have spotted a version
of his persona in Mel Gibson’s Braveheart in 1995. Hollywood’s version wasn’t
altogether the most accurate portrayal of the real man, but his legacy is
remembered not just by the Scottish, but also by Ulster-Scots people in
Northern Ireland.

In its entirety, the story is complex, dramatic and includes
daggers drawn, a Scottish army at loggerheads with its English neighbours, and
the exiled King Robert fighting for his country’s freedom.

So this is the tale of Rathlin Island, an exiled King
Robert, and a very, very determined spider.

The year was 1306AD. After suffering a defeat and in exile,
King Robert of Scotland was pondering his next move in a cave on the
picturesque Rathlin Island. He had received yet more upsetting news from his
sources in Scotland. His wife was being held in captivity, his brother had been
executed and the Scottish village of Kildrummy had been taken by his enemies.

This was bad. His thoughts turned to his options. He could
take himself and his brothers to the Holy Land or courageously attempt to
restore freedom to his beloved homeland, knowing in his heart that the former
would be both criminal and cowardly. But did he have it in him to continue?

Glancing upwards to the roof of the cave, he spied a tiny
spider hanging on a thread trying to swing to a nearby rock so it could fix the
line and create a web. Six times the spider tried and six times he failed to
reach the beam. But he didn’t give up.

Robert the Bruce had tried to free Scotland from the English
and their allies six times, and six times had failed. The spider’s
determination was not lost on him.

If the spider makes it to the rock on the seventh attempt,
decided Robert, he would continue his fortunes in Scotland. If he fails, the
Holy Land beckoned.

As he made this resolution, the spider – maybe sensing the
moment, maybe completely oblivious – swung with all its might and reached the
other side to fix his web. The deal was sealed and a return to Scotland
followed.

Not only was this determined spider’s valiant efforts a
major influence on Scottish history – and by default, our Ulster-Scots heritage
– it also protected spiders from those who heard the tale in the centuries that
followed. On no account would people
kill a spider because it had inspired a king and shown the power of
perseverance.

This is the 'Writer's Chair' and I took this photo last year when I asked a friend to sit in it. She is a writer so she sat in it looking for more inspiration for her next poem.

So my time on Rathlin has come to an end and perhaps at least next time you see a spider, you will remember Rathlin Island and even some of you might visit next year!

Above, (both Wesleys' photos) are some of us on the ferry back to Ballycastle and the scene (below) is before we boarded the bus on our return journey.

I will leave you with 2 short videos as I leave this beautiful island.

The first one can be accessed at http://youtu.be/sTd1xF8QxsQ

The last video can be accessed at http://youtu.be/Wrnctd1tlLM

Thank you for visiting my blog and in particular to all of those people who have left comments. You can access more photos at the Bird D'Pot
http://id-rather-b-birdin.blogspot.com

Friday, 28 June 2013

Yesterday I finished my walk to the East Lighthouse, however I forgot to add in this newly fledged Chaffinch which was the best sitter ever even though at times, as you can see from some of the photographs, he nearly fell asleep! I am sure if you watched the video yesterday you will have seen him however I thought you might like to see the stills I took also.

Give me a break, I'm tired posing!

While he is having a bit of a nap I will tell you a little about the European Chaffinch.

Chaffinch - Fringilla coelebs

This bird is not migratory in the milder parts of its range,
but vacates the colder regions in winter. The coelebs part of its name means
"bachelor". This species was
named by Carl Linnaeus who was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist,
who laid the foundations for the modern scheme forformalising the system of naming species of
living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use
Latin grammatical forms.He found that the
females depart in winter, but the males often remain. This species forms loose
flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixed with Bramblings.

OK, this is my best side!

Mama, tell this lady to go away!!

Perhaps if I don't look at her she will give up!!

OK, this is really my LAST pose!

The following photos are flowers I discovered during this walk.

I do not know a lot about Orchids however I know there are bloggers
that do, so help is required here please.I think most, if not all of the following Orchids are Common Spotted
ones however I am not sure about the deep purple ones, they look a bit
different to me.Please advise me.

The Common Spotted orchid gets its name from its leaves
which are green with abundant purplish oval spots. They form a rosette at
ground level before the flower spike appears; narrower leaves sheath the stem.
The flowers range from white and pale pink through to purple, but have
distinctive darker pink spots and stripes on their three-lobed lips, ranging
from 15 to 60 cm in height. The flowers
are densely packed in short, cone-shaped clusters. They thrive in damp grassland and flower
between June and July.

Yellow Iris

Double Gorse

Buttercup Field

Iris Field

Grasses

More Orchids Below

Interesting, the common spotted-orchid is the County Flower of
West Lothian/Linlithgowshire in the UK.

Like

E Mail Me At :-

Translate

About Me

I have retired from a medical background, from teaching a 3 year City and Guilds; and also running a Bed and Breakfast. I have taken up bird watching later in life however I became very enthusiastic from the beginning and was greatly encouraged by other bird watchers. For the past 8 years I have led a bird group in my town and have become a guest speaker on cruise shipstalking about Birds around the world. I have travelled quite a bit,in particular to Australia where one of my daughters lives. I have now as many birding friends there as at home in Northern Ireland. I love Nature and being able to share that with others of like mind. I also like photography and do my best to photograph birds although I sometimes get a bit frustrated as my zoom is just not powerful enough.

My daughter and family that were in Australia have now moved to Malawi to work and I have visited them several times as well as visiting Zambia. I.live in Northern Ireland which is part of the UK and it is a beautiful place to live however I love travelling and wil continnue to travel aslong as I am able. I would love to go to visit bloggers that I follow and they are always very welcome here in N. Ireland.